


Calendars

by spacedaydreamer



Category: Zero Escape (Video Games), Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma - Fandom
Genre: I'm writing birthday fluff four months late, Multi, but who cares; it's cute and fluffy and makes me feel happy, it's really good., junkanlos is really good; guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-19 00:02:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11301573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacedaydreamer/pseuds/spacedaydreamer
Summary: Junpei couldn't help but be a little bit confused at what he'd found- just what was in that photo envelope that'd gotten Carlos so embarrassed?





	Calendars

“Hey, uh…. Carlos? What’s this?”

Junpei held up the envelope of photo proofs for Carlos to see, watching his face turn more and more red. Despite being the one who’d first discovered them, Akane was nowhere to be found- how suspicious…

“Th-that’s… uh… nothing important! So, if you could just hand those over-“

He attempted to grab the envelope from Junpei’s hand, but he was curious now! There was no way he could just give this up, not when Carlos was making such a cute face. It was pretty easy to move back out of Carlos’s reach, playing with the flap that’d open the envelope.

“They sure seem pretty important… are they _embarrassing?_ Don’t tell me… they’re your prom pictures! Of you and your cat!”

“N-no, it’s not- they’re not- Th-they’re, um…. They’re your birthday present!”

That got Junpei surprised, and his moment of distraction was long enough for Carlos to grab the envelope from his hands and heave a sigh of relief. However, this was only making Junpei _more_ curious… what sort of photos would Carlos have gotten Junpei for his _birthday?_ Wasn’t that a pretty weird gift?

“A-Anyways, you’ll get to see them later. But, where’d you find these, anyways? I thought I’d hidden them so well…”

“Akane pointed them out to me.”

“Sh-She-“

Junpei didn’t need to turn around to know that Akane was now standing behind him, quite likely wearing that devilish smirk she sometimes wore when up to something. Judging by Carlos’s reaction, he was completely right, but what could that mean? Just what was Akane planning?

“Oh, whoops! I must’ve forgotten that those were _those_ pictures…” There was an obvious tease to her voice, which only seemed to grow when Carlos groaned in defeat. “But, he hasn’t seen them, so no harm done, right? We can still make sure he gets the perfect present…”

Junpei wasn’t sure why, but the way she said that made his face heat up ever so slightly. It wasn’t his turn to be embarrassed, so why was _he_ blushing? Eager to take the focus back off him, Junpei laughed and waved his hand.

“I’m sure if it’s the two of you working together, it’ll be something to look forwards to. You’ll have to surprise me.”

Neither Akane nor Carlos said anything to that- the room just went quiet, and the topic was dropped entirely soon after.

* * *

It was about a month later, and Junpei had basically forgotten about the little picture incident. It wasn’t like it was something huge, after all- the three of them would tease each other all the time. Carlos hiding embarrassing photos was nothing particularly special, beyond Junpei’s inherent curiosity about just what he’d been hiding.

“Oh, Jumpy…” He raised his eyebrow at Akane’s voice, a bit confused. His confusion only seemed to make her laugh, as he started to look around the room. “Do you know what day it is?”

“Uh… Friday?”

That got both her and Carlos to laugh, big grins pasted on both of their faces.

“Junpei, it’s the eighth.”

When the words seemed to not register with him at all, it was Carlos who stepped in to explain, the look of amusement never leaving his face.

“It’s your _birthday_. February eighth?”

“Oh- _oooooooh_. Whoops.”

Again Akane and Carlos laughed, this time bringing a hint of blush to Junpei’s face. Well, it wasn’t _his_ fault that he’d forgotten… it was just a date, right? Judging by the looks on their faces, maybe not.

“Do you want to see your _present?_ ” Akane’s grin turned into something more akin to a smug smile, holding up a large box, cutely wrapped in blue paper. “Or, do you want to save it for tonight.”

“Well, you’ve got me curious now. I want to see what’s inside…”

“Alright then.”

With a little flourish, she set the box down in front of him. Junpei’s eyes went to Carlos, but he just looked off to the side- was he blushing? Yeah, he definitely was… Dammit, now Junpei was _really_ curious.

It took him no time to tear off the paper, opening the box to find- another box, this time wrapped in green. Confused, he opened that one- and there was _another_ box, this one purple. He went through three more, a red, a yellow, and a silver, until he _finally_ reached the last box, this one wrapped in orange.

“I swear, if you guys just got me a bunch of boxes…”

“There’s something in there, Junpei. Just trust me.”

Carlos’s blush had only seemed to grow stronger with each box Junpei had opened- his entire face was cherry red at this point. It really was cute… it seemed that Akane thought so as well, giving his hand a little squeeze as Junpei went to open the orange box.

On the inside was something thin, wrapped further still in bundles of that cheesy valentines-print tissue paper. It all fell away with ease, finally revealing… a calendar. But not just _any_ calendar, no… it was a _Calendar_.

The cover itself was pretty innocuous, just a cute candid photo of the three of them, that someone must’ve gotten one day when Junpei hadn’t been paying attention. The inside, though… that was when the Calendar got interesting.

The first picture was sill pretty tame, Carlos and Akane sitting down beside a fireplace for the month of January. However, with each picture after that, it got… _creative_. Some months were just Carlos, others just Akane, and some were them both- but they’d definitely put some time into this. Way more time than he ever would’ve imagined they’d actually _have_ , considering they’d done _two years_ worth of photos; each one looking rather professionally composed.

He could feel his face heating up as he continued to look through the calendar- oh, there was one of Carlos lifting up Akane- and another one there of Akane attempting to lift Carlos- hey, that one there was…. oh jeez, that was... spicy. Looks like he’d have to keep this calendar out of the workplace…

“Well, what do you think?”

There was just a hint of a tease to Akane’s voice, and that was enough to make his blush grow twice as big. He looked around the room for a while, trying to look at anything else- but he ended up accidentally making eye contact with Carlos, who was _also_ blushing, and only getting further embarrassed.

“I-I love it. It’s certainly… unique…” He could feel his face growing even more heated, and he bit his lip. “B-But, uh… if my present was a calendar, why did you need all those proofs…?”

“Oh, that’s because we hid them around for you to find.”

“Y-Y-You did _what?!_ ”

Akane chuckled, while Junpei’s eyes began to scan the room. She was right- he hadn’t noticed it before, but there was _definitely_ a new picture hanging on the wall, one of the tame ones of her and Carlos posing together.

“Akane thought it’d be interesting to see if you could find them. We hid them all after you went to bed last night- it’s a good thing you’re such a heavy sleeper.”

“I think we did a pretty good job at it too, considering you haven’t found any yet… good luck, Jumpy!”

His heart skipped a beat as they both clapped him on the back, standing back to let him examine the room. Well, as devious as this gift was, Junpei had to admit that he liked it- and it was _certainly_ memorable.

He’d just have to hope that he didn’t miss any pictures for someone else to accidentally stumble across.

**Author's Note:**

> Because I'll never be over the thought of Carlos having been in those firefighter charity calendars, why not add Akane to the mix for a Very Special Present for Junpei? There's never enough fluff for these guys, man I love it when they're happy.
> 
> As always, thanks for reading!


End file.
